Team Lucas Oil duo of Lawrence and Walker also advance to Championship Round, final four teams set to compete Friday

CHARLES COUNTY, Md. (Aug. 20, 2026) – Team YETI’s Jeff Sprague of Point, Texas, and Bryan Thrift of Shelby, North Carolina, endured a slow start Thursday before catching fire as the tide literally turned, rallying to catch 15 scorable bass weighing 32 pounds, 5 ounces to win Knockout Round Match 2 at the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches on the Potomac River.

Sprague and Thrift were well off the pace through much of the day, not catching a single scorable bass through the first half of the second period, before a move to docks on the northern end of the competition area coincided with the outgoing tide and completely changed their day on the water. Once the water began falling, the Team YETI duo steadily climbed the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard and eventually pulled away for a convincing victory.

Team Lucas Oil’s Jake Lawrence of Paris, Tennessee, and Jacob Walker of Springville, Alabama, mounted a rally of their own in the final period, catching three late scorable bass to overtake Team Star brite and secure the second and final berth in Friday’s Championship Round. Lawrence and Walker finished with eight bass weighing 18-11, while Justin Cooper and Colby Miller of Team Star brite finished third with four bass weighing 10-14.

For much of Thursday, Sprague and Thrift looked nothing like the team that dominated Elimination Round Match 3 two days earlier. The bite remained difficult as the tide continued to rise, forcing the pair to keep moving and searching for an area that would come alive later in the day.

That finally happened when they shifted to docks on the northern end of the competition water just as the tide began to turn. The timing proved critical, as bass that had been difficult to trigger suddenly positioned around the dock structure and began feeding.

“We just kept going and kept trying things,” Sprague said. “You never know what you can learn. Even if something doesn’t work right then, you might learn something about where those fish are setting up that you can use later. Once that tide started to change, everything changed for us.”

The turnaround was dramatic. Sprague and Thrift went from struggling to generate bites to steadily adding fish, ultimately combining for 32-5 and putting more than 13 pounds between themselves and Team Lucas Oil. The falling tide repositioned the bass around the docks and ignited the bite.

“We finally got around the right docks at the right time,” Thrift said. “Once that water started moving out, those fish set up where we could catch them. We had tried a lot of different things earlier in the day, but when we got in the right area and the tide got right, it happened pretty fast.”

The win sends Sprague and Thrift back to the Championship Round of the Patriot Cup, an event they won together in 2024. With another opportunity to hoist the trophy Friday, Sprague said the team’s experience in the format should serve them well.

“We’d love to win another Patriot Cup,” Sprague said. “That’s what we came here to do. Tomorrow is destination unknown again – no practice, no information – so we’ll go back, retie everything and be ready to figure it out all over again.”

While Team YETI eventually separated from the field, the most dramatic battle of the afternoon came at the elimination line. Team Star brite entered the final period in second place after a strong start that included a 4-pound, 3-ounce largemouth from Miller, but the team failed to add another scorable bass after 11:06 a.m.

Lawrence and Walker capitalized. Team Lucas Oil caught three scorable bass in the final period, including a late surge that pushed them past Star brite and into the Championship Round. Walker punctuated the comeback with a 4-pound, 3-ounce largemouth, the final scorable bass caught Thursday, to share Berkley Big Bass honors with Miller.

The top two teams from Knockout Round Match 2 at the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches that advance to the Championship Round are:

1st:        Team YETI, 15 bass, 32-5
Jeff Sprague, Point, Texas, eight bass, 16-3
Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., seven bass, 16-2
2nd:      Team Lucas Oil, eight bass, 18-11
Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., three bass, 7-4
Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., five bass, 11-7

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team Star brite, four bass, 10-14
Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., one bass, 1-12
Colby Miller, Elmer, La., three bass, 9-2

Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, the three teams caught 27 bass weighing 61 pounds, 14 ounces in Knockout Round Match 2 Thursday on the Potomac River. Team Lucas Oil pro Jacob Walker and Team Star brite pro Colby Miller both earned a share of the Berkley Big Bass honors, each catching a 4-pound, 3-ounce largemouth that was the heaviest single bass caught on the day.

With the Knockout Round now complete, four teams remain in contention for the Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches. Friday’s Championship Round will feature Team B&W Trailer Hitches’ Mark Davis and Marshall Hughes, Team Lucas Oil’s Lawrence and Walker, Team Seaguar BRAWLR’s Bradley Roy and Greg Vinson, and Team YETI’s Sprague and Thrift.

The Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches is hosted by the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism and takes place over six days in Charles County, Maryland. The competition water for each day is top secret and is only revealed to the anglers when they arrive at the boat ramp each morning. Anglers are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water each day at 10:15 a.m.

The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on Championship Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. MLFNOW!® is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and Rumble. The final hour of Friday’s competition will be broadcast live from 4 to 5 p.m. ET on RFD-TV.

The Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches featured 12 two-man teams divided into three groups as they entered the one-day Elimination Round matches. Each of the three Elimination Round matches featured four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Round advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 and 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams competed each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Friday’s Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine which team will earn the 2026 Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches trophy.

The MLF Starlink Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops features four Cup events in 2026 – the Patriot, Heritage, Challenge and Summit Cups – with 12 two-man teams of Bass Pro Tour anglers competing for a share of $560,000 in prize money. Teams were formed through a selection process in which 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2026 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2026.

The MLF Starlink Team Series Bass Pro Shops Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches will also air on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday afternoon beginning in January 2027. The complete television schedule for the Starlink Team Series on Outdoor Channel will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Starlink Team Series include: Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Bass Force, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Grizzly, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Starlink, Toyota, YETI, Yuengling and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on the MLF Starlink Team Series, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook,  X,  Instagram and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.